Skill
Develop Evaluation Essay
In my foundation portfolio, I created my college magazine
front cover, while doing this, I didn’t know much about using Photoshop or
putting images together to make magazines. On my foundation portfolio, I
completed a college magazine for my college; I took pictures outside of class
around the college to promote the college in this magazine. I then created my
magazine through Photoshop, developing my skills in Photoshop. I then completed
my music magazine; this task was much bigger than the college magazine task so
therefore I had to spend more of the year doing my music magazine. I also
created this in Photoshop as well as the double page spread and the contents
page that went with the music magazine front cover.
Before I started the
AS Media course, I had very few skills using Photoshop; I was not able to
manipulate images or text effectively. For example, before I started the course
is I was to be asked to create the music magazine that I completed in my first
year of media studies; I would not be able to complete it. I would only be able
to take the images, put them into Photoshop and maybe add text, I would not have
been able to change the colour settings on the images, and I would not be able
to use any of the tools or techniques that you are able to carry out on
Photoshop. Throughout this project, I learned a lot about using Photoshop
correctly to make my magazine look realistic and make it look like a real
college magazine. After I took the pictures for my front cover, I took a few to
make sure that if one went wrong, I would have some back up pictures to I would
not have to waste time going out and taking more, I manipulated them on
Photoshop, I watched some tutorials on YouTube and asked my teacher to shop me
how to use some of the tools on Photoshop. Once I was able to use Photoshop
effectively, I could make my images look professional on the front of my
magazine. I then on Photoshop added the text and Wyke College logo to show that
it is the college magazine.
When I started my
foundation portfolio, because I had the starter task of making the college
magazine, this gave me the chance to develop my skills in Photoshop, when it
came to my music magazine I was able to create the music magazine without many
problems because I was able to use
Photoshop effectively. With these skills I learned I was able to change the
lightness and darkness of the images, I was able to make the writing look
better on the front of the cover, I was able to do a lot more things that I
wouldn’t have been able to do before I started the AS Media course.
In my foundation portfolio, I was able to use my skills that
I had learned producing my college magazine as a preliminary project, on my
music magazine. For example, compared to my college magazine front cover, I was
able to make the music magazine look a lot for effective such as making text
stand out and manipulation the images to make the magazine look more appealing
to read. Also, because my skills had developed a lot since my preliminary task,
I was able to complete this with a lot less problems. For example, I was able
to add more of the features that I wanted to onto my music magazine front cover
because I knew how to work Photoshop a more effectively. My college magazine
design is a lot more basic then my music magazine. It had basic text on the
front and I did not manipulate the images on the front cover at all. Compared
to my music magazine front cover, I have made the text stand
out by putting back
ground onto the text; I have also added shadow to the text which also allows
the text to stand out. I manipulated the
images on the front of the cover which makes the image look more natural and
what people would expect to be ‘perfect’ on the front of a magazine.
During my foundation
portfolio, my skills developed a lot. From not been able to use Photoshop at
all, to been able to make a music magazine from scratch by manipulating the
images and creating text to put onto the image. I also created a double page
spread which contained a manipulated image which I took myself, an article that
I wrote to put onto this double page spread about the artist in the image, and
I also created the heading of the page and was able to position the text
effectively to make the page look interesting. I would not have been able to
create this at all in Photoshop before my foundation portfolio. I also created
the contents page of my magazine. This took probably the longest to work on
because of all the text that I had to place and type on the page, I did a lot
of rough drafts for this page because I wasn’t quite sure how to position the
text or change the colour of manipulate the images to make the magazine look
aesthetically pleasing, but I watched some YouTube videos which allowed me to
learn how to make the page look good.
In conclusion, before I started my foundation portfolio I didn’t
know anything about how to manipulate images, add text etc. and most of all I didn’t
know anything about using Photoshop, when I started my preliminary task of
creating the college magazine, this allowed me to learn all about using
Photoshop and then when it came to actually creating my music magazine, I was
able to make this without as many problems as the preliminary task, although I came
across some difficulties, I was able to solve them easily because I know what
to do on Photoshop. Now I am able to do a lot of things that I wasn’t able to
do, and I can create and manipulate things easily and effectively.
